Google's VirusTotal brings its popular security uploader to Mac

Apple’s OS X has increasingly been a target for hackers, but a new Mac version of a popular security utility may provide a strong ally.

The online scanning service VirusTotal, which Google acquired in 2002, said Monday at its blog that VirusTotal Uploader of OS X is ready for download. Mac users running OS X 10.8 or 10.9 can use VirusTotal Uploader to upload suspicious files and URLs to VirusTotal, which then scans them for all kinds of malware.

As more and more of these files and URLs are submitted by Mac users, the security community can use the data to better understand the tricks of would-be Mac hackers.

“Hopefully this will lead to VirusTotal receiving more Mac applications, diving deeper into an increasingly targeted OS by attackers and allowing antivirus companies and researchers making use of VirusTotal’s backend to build stronger defenses against these threats,” VirusTotal says in a blog post Monday.

VirusTotal has continued operating independently of Google since the 2002 acquisition.